In recent years, many businesses have moved from a traditional paper-based document handling and delivery system to an image-based document handling and delivery system. In image-based document delivery systems, a paper document is converted to an electronic image, and once the document is converted to an image by a scanner or similar equipment, the document can be transmitted and manipulated electronically in image form without being converted back to a paper document. One such image based delivery system is described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/620,563 filed on Jul. 20, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The image-based delivery system described in the aforementioned application has many advantages over traditional paper-based document handling and delivery systems including: (1) improved business cycle time because time-consuming traditional mail/courier services are no longer used or are used less frequently; (2) reduced mail/courier costs; and (3) fewer resources are required.
Despite the many advantages that arise from the use of an image-based document handling and delivery system, difficulties arise due to errors that occur during scanning and other document conversion processes. Image based documents may often contain conversion errors that cause them to be inconsistent with the original paper-based documents. Some of the errors may be recurring errors that could be eliminated during or after document conversion if the occurrence of such errors were accurately predicted and tracked. Often, imaged documents are illegible, have missing pages, or include blank portions due to post-it notes covering portions of the text. Errors can also include processing details such as imaging a document using an incorrect work-type or incorrect indexing. In addition, some documents are incorrectly completed such as an unsigned application or check or missing alternation forms.
In view of the potential deficiencies described above in image-based document handling and delivery systems, a system is needed for efficiently and economically tracking errors found in documents formed by an imaging process.